The first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and the Yukon from at least 20 000 years ago, with suggested ages of up to 40,000 years.[15][16][17] Beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion.[18] Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred during the late glacial maximum, from 16,000 to 13,000 years ago.[17][19]

The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 40,000–17,000 years ago,[20] when sea levels were significantly lowered due to the Quaternary glaciation.[18][21] These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocenemegafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets.[22] Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats, they migrated down the Pacific coast to South America.[23] Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of meters following the last ice age.[24] Both routes may have been taken, although the genetic evidences suggests a single founding population.[25] The micro-satellite diversity and distributions specific to South American Indigenous people indicates that certain populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.[26]

Many pre-Columbian civilizations established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and are known only through archaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya, had their own written records. However, most Europeans of the time viewed such texts as pagan, and much was destroyed in Christian pyres. Only a few hidden documents remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.[36]

Although there had been previous trans-oceanic contact, large-scale European colonization of the Americas began with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The first Spanish settlement in the Americas was La Isabela in northern Hispaniola. This town was abandoned shortly after in favor of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, founded in 1496, the oldest American city of European foundation. This was the base from which the Spanish monarchy administered its new colonies and their expansion. On the continent, Panama City on the Pacific coast of Central America, founded on August 5, 1519, played an important role, being the base for the Spanish conquest of South America. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and Africans killed many of the inhabitants of North America and South America,[37][38] with a general population crash of Native Americans occurring in the mid-16th century, often well ahead of European contact.[39] European immigrants were often part of state-sponsored attempts to found colonies in the Americas. Migration continued as people moved to the Americas fleeing religious persecution or seeking economic opportunities. Millions of individuals were forcibly transported to the Americas as slaves, prisoners or indentured servants.

Map showing the dates of independence from European powers. Black signifies areas that are dependent territories or parts of countries with a capital outside the Americas.

World map of Waldseemüller (Germany, 1507), which first used the name America (in the lower-left section, over South America)[40]

The earliest known use of the name America dates to April 25, 1507, where it was applied to what is now known as South America.[40] It appears on a small globe map with twelve time zones, together with the largest wall map made to date, both created by the German cartographerMartin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in France.[41] These were the first maps to show the Americas as a land mass separate from Asia. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, anonymous but apparently written by Waldseemüller's collaborator Matthias Ringmann,[42] states, "I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part [that is, the South American mainland], after Americus who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, Amerigen, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia got their names from women". Americus Vespucius is the Latinized version of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, and America is the feminine form of Americus. Amerigo itself is an Italian form of the medieval Latin Emericus (see also Saint Emeric of Hungary), which like the German form Heinrich (in English, Henry) derives from the Old High German name Haimirich.[43]

Vespucci was apparently unaware of the use of his name to refer to the new landmass, as Waldseemüller's maps did not reach Spain until a few years after his death.[42] Ringmann may have been misled into crediting Vespucci by the widely published Soderini Letter, a sensationalized version of one of Vespucci's actual letters reporting on the mapping of the South American coast, which glamorized his discoveries and implied that he had recognized that South America was a continent separate from Asia; in fact, it is not known what Vespucci believed on this count, and he may have died believing, like Columbus, that he had reached the East Indies in Asia rather than a new continent.[44] Spain officially refused to accept the name America for two centuries, saying that Columbus should get credit, and Waldseemüller's later maps, after Ringmann's death, did not include it; however, usage was established when Gerardus Mercator applied the name to the entire New World in his 1538 world map. Acceptance may have been aided by the "natural poetic counterpart" that the name America made with Asia, Africa, and Europa.[42]

In modern English, North and South America are generally considered separate continents, and taken together are called the Americas in the plural, parallel to similar situations such as the Carolinas. When conceived as a unitary continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a clarifying context, singular America commonly refers in English, controversially, to the United States of America.[7]

The northernmost point of the Americas is Kaffeklubben Island, which is the most northerly point of land on Earth.[45] The southernmost point is the islands of Southern Thule, although they are sometimes considered part of Antarctica.[46] The mainland of the Americas is the world's longest north-to-south landmass. The distance between its two polar extremities, the Boothia Peninsula in northern Canada and Cape Froward in Chilean Patagonia, is roughly 14,000 km (8,700 mi).[47] The mainland's most westerly point is the end of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska; Attu Island, further off the Alaskan coast to the west, is considered the westernmost point of the Americas. Ponta do Seixas in northeastern Brazil forms the easternmost extremity of the mainland,[47] while Nordostrundingen, in Greenland, is the most easterly point of the continental shelf.

South America broke off from the west of the supercontinentGondwana around 135 million years ago, forming its own continent.[48] Around 15 million years ago, the collision of the Caribbean Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in the emergence of a series of volcanoes along the border that created a number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central America filled in with material eroded off North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By three million years ago, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama, thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas.[49] The Great American Interchange resulted in many species being spread across the Americas, such as the cougar, porcupine, opossums, armadillos and hummingbirds.[50]

The ranges with the highest peaks are the Andes and Rocky Mountain ranges. Although high peaks exist in the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range, on average there are not as many reaching a height greater than 14,000 feet. In North America, the greatest number of fourteeners are in the United States, and more specifically in the U.S. state of Colorado. The highest peaks of the Americas are located in the Andes, with Aconcagua of Argentina being the highest; in North America Mount McKinley (Denali) in the U.S. state of Alaska is the tallest.

Southeastern North America is well known for its occurrence of tornadoes and hurricanes, of which the vast majority of tornadoes occur in the United States' Tornado Alley.[59] Often parts of the Caribbean are exposed to the violent effects of hurricanes. These weather systems are formed by the collision of dry, cool air from Canada and wet, warm air from the Atlantic.

The Colorado River drains much of the Southern Rockies and parts of the Great Basin and Range Province. The river flows approximately 1,450 miles (2,330 km) into the Gulf of California,[61] during which over time it has carved out natural phenomena such as the Grand Canyon and created phenomena such as the Salton Sea. The Columbia is a large river, 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, in central western North America and is the most powerful river on the West Coast of the Americas. In the far northwest of North America, the Yukon drains much of the Alaskan peninsula and flows 1,980 miles (3,190 km)[62] from parts of Yukon and the Northwest Territory to the Pacific. Draining to the Arctic Ocean of Canada, the Mackenzie River drains waters from the Arctic Great Lakes of Arctic Canada, as opposed to the Saint-Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes of Southern Canada into the Atlantic Ocean. The Mackenzie River is the largest in Canada and drains 1,805,200 square kilometres (697,000 sq mi).[63]

The largest river basin in South America is that of the Amazon, which has the highest volume flow of any river on Earth.[64] The second largest watershed of South America is that of the Paraná River, which covers about 2.5 million km².[65]

North America and South America began to develop a shared population of flora and fauna around 2.5 million years ago, when continental drift brought the two continents into contact via the Isthmus of Panama. Initially, the exchange of biota was roughly equal, with North American genera migrating into South America in about the same proportions as South American genera migrated into North America. This exchange is known as the Great American Interchange. The exchange became lopsided after roughly a million years, with the total spread of South American genera into North America far more limited in scope than the spread on North American genera into South America.[66]

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets. Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization and do not include large swaths of rural land, as do metropolitan areas.

Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also satellite cities plus intervening rural land that is socio-economically connected to the urban core city, typically by employment ties through commuting, with the urban core city being the primary labor market.

In accordance with these definitions, the three largest population centers in the Americas are: Mexico City, anchor to the largest metropolitan area in the Americas; New York City, anchor to the largest urban area in the Americas; and São Paulo, the largest city proper in the Americas. All three cities maintain Alpha classification and large scale influence.

Urban Centers within the Americas

São Paulo – Largest city proper in the Americas with a population of 10,886,534 in 2010.

New York City – Largest urban area in the Americas with a population of 18,351,295 in 2010.

Mexico City – Largest metropolitan area in the Americas with a population of 20,116,842 in 2010.

Buenos Aires - Fourth largest metropolitan area in the Americas, with a population of 15,024,000 in 2014.[98]

Roman Catholicism: Practiced by 69 percent[110] of the Latin American population, 81 percent[110] in Mexico and 61 Percent[110] in Brazil whose Roman Catholic population of 123 million is the greatest of any nation's; approximately 24 percent of the United States' population[111] and about 39 percent of Canada's.[112]

Protestantism: Practiced mostly in the United States, where half of the population are Protestant, and Canada, with slightly more than a quarter of the population; there is a growing contingent of Evangelical and Pentecostal movements in predominantly Catholic Latin America.[113]

Eastern Orthodoxy: Found mostly in the United States (1 percent)and Canada; this Christian group is growing faster than many other Christian groups in Canada and now represents roughly 3 percent of the Canadian population.[112]

Irreligion: About 12 Percent, including atheists and agnostics, as well as those who profess some form of spirituality but do not identify themselves as members of any organized religion)

Islam: Together, Muslims constitute about 1 percent of the North American population and 0.3 percent of all Latin Americans. It is practiced by 3 percent [112] of Canadians and 0.6 percent of the U.S. population.[111]Argentina has the largest Muslim population in Latin America with up to 600,000 persons, or 1.9 percent of the population.[114]

Judaism (practiced by 2 percent of North Americans—approximately 2.5 percent of the U.S. population and 1.2 percent of Canadians[115]—and 0.23 percent of Latin Americans—Argentina has the largest Jewish population in Latin America with 200,000 members)[116]

Various languages are spoken in the Americas. Some are of European origin, others are spoken by indigenous peoples or are the mixture of various idioms like the different creoles.

The most widely spoken language in the Americas is Spanish. The dominant language of Latin America is Spanish, though the most populous nation in Latin America, Brazil, speaks Portuguese. Small enclaves of French-, Dutch- and English-speaking regions also exist in Latin America, notably in French Guiana, Suriname, and Belize and Guyana respectively, and Haitian Creole, of French origin, is dominant in the nation of Haiti. Native languages are more prominent in Latin America than in Anglo-America, with Nahuatl, Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní as the most common. Various other native languages are spoken with less frequency across both Anglo-America and Latin America. Creole languages other than Haitian Creole are also spoken in parts of Latin America.

The dominant language of Anglo-America is English. French is also official in Canada, where it is the predominant language in Quebec and an official language in New Brunswick along with English. It is also an important language in Louisiana, and in parts of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. Spanish has kept an ongoing presence in the Southwestern United States, which formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, especially in California and New Mexico, where a distinct variety of Spanish spoken since the 17th century has survived. It has more recently become widely spoken in other parts of the United States due to heavy immigration from Latin America. High levels of immigration in general have brought great linguistic diversity to Anglo-America, with over 300 languages known to be spoken in the United States alone, but most languages are spoken only in small enclaves and by relatively small immigrant groups.

The nations of Guyana, Suriname, and Belize are generally considered[by whom?] not to fall into either Anglo-America or Latin America due to lingual differences with Latin America, geographic differences with Anglo-America, and cultural and historical differences with both regions; English is the primary language of Guyana and Belize, and Dutch is the official and written language of Suriname.

Most of the non-native languages have, to different degrees, evolved differently from the mother country, but are usually still mutually intelligible. Some have combined, however, which has even resulted in completely new languages, such as Papiamento, which is a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch (representing the respective colonizers), native Arawak, various African languages, and, more recently English. The lingua francaPortuñol, a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, is spoken in the border regions of Brazil and neighboring Spanish-speaking countries.[117] More specifically, Riverense Portuñol is spoken by around 100,000 people in the border regions of Brazil and Uruguay. Due to immigration, there are many communities where other languages are spoken from all parts of the world, especially in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay—very important destinations for immigrants.[118][119][120]

Speakers of English generally refer to the landmasses of North America and South America as the Americas, the Western Hemisphere, or the New World.[121] The adjective American may be used to indicate something pertains to the Americas,[2] but this term is primarily used in English to indicate something pertaining to the United States.[2][122][123] Some non-ambiguous alternatives exist, such as the adjective Pan-American,[124] or New Worlder as a demonym for a resident of the Americas.[3] Use of America in the hemispherical sense is sometimes retained, or can occur when translated from other languages.[125] For example, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) in Paris maintains a single continental association for "America", represented by one of the five Olympic rings.[126]

The English-language use of American as the demonym for citizens of the United States has caused offense to some from Latin America[127] who may identify themselves as Americans and feel that using the term solely for the United States misappropriates it.[128] To avoid this usage, they prefer constructed terms in their languages derived from "United States" or even "North America".[123][129][130] In Canada, its southern neighbor is often referred to as "the United States", "the U.S.A.", or (informally) "the States," while citizens are generally referred to as Americans.[123] Most Canadians resent being referred to as Americans,[123] but some are said to have protested against the use of American as a national demonym.[123][131]

In Spanish, América is a single continent composed of the subcontinents of Sudamérica and Norteamérica, the land bridge of Centroamérica, and the islands of the Antillas. Americano or americana in Spanish refers to a person from América in a similar way that europeo or europea refers to a person from Europa. The terms sudamericano/a, centroamericano/a, antillano/a and norteamericano/a can be used to more specifically refer to the location where a person may live.

Citizens of the United States of America are normally referred to by the term estadounidense (rough literal translation: "United Statesian") instead of americano or americana which is discouraged,[132][133] and the country's name itself is officially translated as Estados Unidos de América (United States of America), commonly abbreviated as Estados Unidos.[133] Also, the term norteamericano (North American) may refer to a citizen of the United States. This term is primarily used to refer to citizens of the United States, and less commonly to those of other North American countries.[132]

In Portuguese, América[134] is a single continent composed of América do Sul (South America), América Central (Central America) and América do Norte (North America).[135] It can be ambiguous, as América can be used to refer to the United States of America, but is avoided in print and formal environments.[136][137]

In French the word américain may be used for things relating to the Americas, however, similar to English, it is most often used for things relating to the United States. Panaméricain may be used as an adjective to refer to the Americas without ambiguity.[138] French speakers may use the noun Amérique to refer to the whole landmass as one continent, or two continents, Amérique du Nord and Amérique du Sud. In French, Amérique is also used to refer to the United States, making the term ambiguous. Similar to English usage, les Amériques or des Amériques is used to refer unambiguously to the Americas.

In Dutch, the word Amerika mostly refers to the United States.[citation needed] Although the United States is equally often referred to as de Verenigde Staten or de VS, Amerika relatively rarely refers to the Americas, but it is the only commonly used Dutch word for the Americas. This often leads to ambiguity; and to stress that something concerns the Americas as a whole, Dutch uses a combination, namely Noord- en Zuid-Amerika (North and South America).

Latin America is generally referred to as Latijns Amerika or Midden-Amerika for Central America.

The adjective Amerikaans is most often used for things or people relating to the United States. There are no alternative words to distinguish between things relating to the United States or to the Americas. Dutch uses the local alternative for things relating to elsewhere in the Americas, such as Argentijns for Argentine, etc.

^Marjorie Fee and Janice MacAlpine, Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage (2008) page 36 says "In Canada, American is used almost exclusively in reference to the United States and its citizens." Others, including The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, The Australian Oxford Dictionary and The Concise Oxford English Dictionary all specify both the Americas and the United States in their definition of "American".

^ ab"America." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of Americus, the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). The name America first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16c, a name of the western hemisphere, often in the plural Americas and more or less synonymous with the New World. Since the 18c, a name of the United States of America. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..."

^"Western Hemisphere", Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2001, p. 1294, The part of the Earth comprising North and South America and surrounding waters; longitudes 20°W and 160°E are often considered its boundaries.

"Encyclopedia Britannica". Retrieved 20 May 2015. Western Hemisphere, Part of Earth comprising North and South America and the surrounding waters. Longitudes 20° W and 160° E are often considered its boundaries.

O'Neal, Mary, ed. (2011). The Chambers Dictionary (12 ed.). London: Chambers Harrap Publishers, Ltd. p. 1780. ISBN978-0550-10237-9. This dictionary was written with the British speaker of English in mind. ... The Western Hemisphere is the half of the world that includes North America and South America

The American Heritage College Dictionary (Fourth ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2010. p. 1557. ISBN978-0618835959. Western Hemisphere The half of the earth comprising North America, Central America, and South America

Stevenson, Angus; Lindberg, Christine A., eds. (2010). New Oxford American Dictionary (Third ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 1963. The Half of the earth that contains the Americas

Webster's New World College Dictionary (Fifth ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2014. ISBN978-0-544-16606-6. Western Hemisphere that half of the earth which includes North & South America

^"Introduction". Government of Canada. Parks Canada. 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2010. Canada's oldest known home is a cave in Yukon occupied not 12,000 years ago like the U.S. sites, but at least 20,000 years ago

^"Pleistocene Archaeology of the Old Crow Flats". Vuntut National Park of Canada. 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2010. However, despite the lack of this conclusive and widespread evidence, there are suggestions of human occupation in the northern Yukon about 24,000 years ago, and hints of the presence of humans in the Old Crow Basin as far back as about 40,000 years ago.

^ abDiccionario panhispánico de dudas: Estados Unidos. Real Academia Española. 2005. "debe evitarse el empleo de americano para referirse exclusivamente a los habitantes de los Estados Unidos" ("the use of the term americano referring exclusively to the United States inhabitants must be avoided")